Reflections on Summer 2016

Summer research #2 is finished! Here are some of the thoughts running through my mind.

We made progress on all of the projects despite running into some complications (synthesis yields low, DNA sequencing results poor, peptide synthesis and delivery delayed). When Maddie and Hyejin were leaving near the end of July, I found myself wishing for an additional 10 weeks of uninterrupted research. I have outlines of our first two Pollock lab papers ~~in my mind~~ on sticky notes and now we just need to finish all the experiments!

Speaking of pushing forward, I have FOUR rising seniors this academic year (Hyejin, James, Thanh, and Kristen). My first set of research students will graduate at the end of this year. Time: please slow down. I’m not ready for them to move on.

Of course, that also means that we need to get some new students into the lab this year. Exciting!

The lab is officially funded by an outside source! We were supported by the Virginia Academy of Sciences Mary Louise Olds Andrews Award for Cancer Research in June… I’m happy to have a little extra money to support the projects and hopefully that this will be a little seed money that can grow into larger grants at a later time.

This summer started a few collaborations between our lab and others in the department. We joked that the Pollock lab is “the place you come to express yourself”. By that, we mean, where you come to express your protein of interest. It was great to have additional faces moving about the lab and seeing students excited about research. It was invigorating (albeit exhausting) for me to talk about new projects and be pushed to think about different research. I am constantly being reminded about why I love academia– you are always learning from the people around you. I am also so grateful for a community at UR where collaboration is encouraged and fostered.

Lastly, thank you to the students in my lab this summer: You worked hard. You fought through failures in research. You got good pieces of data. You added to our scientific knowledge. AND you were fun. You make coming to my job enjoyable everyday.

If you look at the photo above (one the back of our lab t-shirts this summer), you can see the personalities of this unique group of students.